Below I will try to reply to the post written by Mark , one of my best friends.
Although personally I had not written the post in this way, it still leads us to reflect on issues dear to me. I state that in my comment I will not dwell much on the sentence, given the situation, was delivered in a fit of rage, but the analysis dell'insofferenza behind this episode.
ORIGINAL POST:
FAVOURS THE TICKET
[...] I was there, sitting just blessed that I was shooting a dose of 4 / 4, after coming into the cab controller and all of us, gentlemen travelers, we extract our passes / tickets for show. But he goes on, so I commit wallet in his pocket. Looking up, I realize that the lady is smiling in front of me looking over my shoulder. I turn and see the foot controller is talking to someone who does not see it. Suddenly the voices become stronger, so much so that even with headphones and music at a moderate volume, I hear screaming.
"I control who I think." It seems that talking is the controller.
"No, you have not checked other," said his interlocutor. "We climbed Bologna" he adds.
Obviously this is not Italian people.
"Not at all, What are you saying? If you've seen up here in Padua "replied the controller. "You were right in front of me."
"No, you just checked us and no other."
"I tell you I do what I want. If you want to check, I control. "
" You idiot, the guy starts to cry.
now the coach is watching the whole scene saying to changing circumstances.
"You idiot," insists the guy. "You look at skin color. You control us because blacks. "
" But do not say nonsense, "replied the controller. "Favorite ticket."
"Idiot!" And the guy stands up. E 'rather large and continues to say "idiot".
The controller, who obviously did not want stories, give up and continued his walk toward the rear of the train.
The three guys of color continue to inveigh against the railway employees, which has now gone in the other car.
arrival in Mestre you start to fall and not let guys with the history of the tickets, until one of them pass by me and says,
"Italian bastards."
I leave you to draw conclusions.
COMMENT TO MY POST:
The question which hides this sentence is much broader than just a fit of rage. Foreigners in Italy feel discriminated against than other citizens, and this is due to several factors, including the unpreparedness of citizenship in welcoming foreigners, due to the presence of recent immigrants. In fact, the former colonial powers, Britain and France, the migration has taken hold in about 30 years before our country, and this has led to a greater degree of integration of foreigners. If you are currently in these countries, as well as the United States, immigrant children, now in its third generation, have achieved progress in the social scale in the professional (academic, medical, judiciary) and administrative (government offices and political roles), and in Italy has led the public to think that if a black person gets on a train, he certainly did not pay the ticket.
There are several cases of intolerance in this sense: the desire not to rent apartments to foreigners refusing to sit next to a black man on public transport, although it is the only place available. These behaviors are related to the generalization that leads us to think that if a foreigner has blood on their hands dirty, then all foreigners are murderers. Have you ever wondered why if a Rumanian violent and kills a woman's opinion Public gets picked up by the psychosis of foreigners, while on another Rumanian jumps into the sea to save the life of a child by sacrificing his own, not news?
So would its generalization and its recent presence of foreigners has led the controller to ask for a ticket only to those students of color, although there were many people in that car. Probably did it unconsciously, but the reasons are in any way related to those principles. I can say this with confidence because I have experienced first hand in that, although a passport and Italian culture, my face does not match to that of a native Italian. For this reason I was stopped more than once to show the "residence permit", and what a surprise to staff when they read in my papers: "Italian citizenship." Such situations, in which the undersigned was chosen despite being accompanied by other people, have occurred in various contexts of control or inspection: airports, stadiums, trains, etc..
At this point I wonder why they tend to use rent control as the physical aspect of people? Most likely because it is a feeling related to primitive instincts. So what is it that leads us to identify a black and white as a foreigner, though not Italian, not as a stranger?
In conclusion, what would be our feelings if one day our national team expressed its increased quality of players with the presence of Moroccan or Albanian? Or if the top of national politics there were the grandchildren of the "Chinese makers of counterfeit items," the "Romanians thieves and murderers" or "Filipino domestic helpers and caretakers?
If the former is already reality for the French national team that won the world championship in 1998, thanks to the captain of origin Algerian Berber who led a team of very few locals, the second question is much more difficult. If in a great democracy like the United States is still difficult to accept the presence of a black man in the White House, then Italy's certainly still a very long road.
